DASH calls for a fair legal process for those arrested in Serbia for war crimes

2024-06-05 09:50:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

DASH calls for a fair legal process for those arrested in Serbia for war crimes

Aries

The US State Department (Dash) told Radio Free Europe on Wednesday that it is aware of the arrest of an individual by Serbian authorities on suspicion of war crimes in the 1990s, and calls for a fair and transparent legal process. against him, and other persons arrested under the same suspicions.

A DASH spokeswoman gave this statement, in the request to comment on the detention of the citizen of Kosovo, Tefik Mustafa, by the Serbian authorities, at the border crossing point between Kosovo and Serbia, Merdare, on June 1.

A court in Belgrade has made a decision against him for detention for 30 days.

"We call on the Serbian institutions to guarantee a fair and transparent legal process for this case, as with any other arrest, in accordance with the rule of law", was said, among other things, in the response of the US Department of State.

The Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, said on June 1 that Mustafa is suspected, in the capacity of a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army, to have been mentioned in witness statements as a participant in the kidnapping of three police officers.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo has considered Mustafa's detention as arbitrary and has requested the help of the international factor for his release.

The Ministry has also made available the telephone number +383 46 51 00 51, for all citizens of Kosovo who may face difficulties during their journey through Serbia.

In the last three years, several citizens of Kosovo have been arrested in Serbia, as it has been said, on suspicion of having committed crimes during the war in Kosovo in the period 1998-99.

On April 17 of this year, the Serbian authorities arrested another Kosovo citizen, Sadik Durak, under the same suspicions, at one of the Kosovo-Serbia border crossing points.

His family members have rejected the accusations, saying that Durak lived in England at that time, together with his family.

Durak was arrested at a border crossing between Croatia and Serbia, and a Serbian court sentenced him to detention that same month.

Recently, his detention was continued for another 30 days.

Earlier in the year, the prime minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, accused Serbia of, as he said, unjust, intentional and malicious arrests of citizens of Kosovo./ REL